Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Silly But Sly at Silwan

Silwan is an Arab neighborhood in Jerusalem which seeks to negate and uproot (or continue to cover-up) Jewish heritage and legacy in the city by asserting an Arab-only (is that what apartheid is?) identity although it sits on or near some of the most earliest and important archaeology sites in the city.Well, they are now battling NBC:-American TV series to be filmed at settlements in SilwanFirst, the news:

...a new drama series for American network NBC [will be filmed] in the settlement outpost “City of David” that is established at the entrance of Silwan south of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Note, they throw in "settlement", and "outpost", place City of David is quotations marks to belittle it and add "south of Al-Aqsa" as if a threat to a Muslim holy site is imminent.

They do include

...Israel is rich in terms of historical monuments and places and being the first American series filmed in Israel.

Then they make a demand:

Wadi Hilweh neighbourhood committee requested Keshet production company and NBC network not to film in the settlement outpost established on the lands of Silwan since it will contest the Islamic and Arabic history and serve in the falsification of facts in the town of Silwan.

How will it falsify? Islamic & Arabic history is post-City of David.

A bit of outreach:

The committee invited officials from the company and NBC network to visit the neighbourhood of Wadi Hilweh and get introduced to its history, features and daily Israeli violations carried out by the occupation authorities before filming a series that will only enhance the false Israeli story on one hand and blurs the Arab and Islamic civilizations on another.

And then more threats and getting America involved:

The committee denounced the Israeli aims and goals behind filming the series in the settlement outpost of “City of David” since it is surrounded by Islamic historical monuments from all the sides; Southern Wall, Dome of the Rock, Umayyad Palaces, the Wailing Wall (Buraq) in addition to the presence of several monuments from different ages inside the settlement...The committee appealed for the American Consulate to interfere and prevent the filming in the Islamic Arabic neighbourhood.

They haven't made a blood libel, as yet, by perhaps claiming we Jews killed a pro-Arab archaeologist.After all, they did kill one a few years back. And a book was written.Who could have possibly killed him?

Most of the work of the investigation was carried out by a local Palestinian journalist, Nabhan Khreishah...Khreishah interviewed as many people as he could at the university..A teaching assistant of Glock's named Hamdan Taha had wanted Glock to give him a job at the Institute, something Glock stubbornly refused to do until at last, after a noisy argument in the teachers' union and the Birzeit University student council, Glock had reluctantly given in. For many years, Glock had held the severe and unyielding view that Taha's work was below the standard he wanted for the select group of Palestinian archaeologists he was trying to create; he did this despite the fact that most other Birzeit professors thought Taha was a positive asset to the university, and implored him to give the assistant a chance. It was poor judgment on Glock's part to oppose hiring a Palestinian at such a politically charged moment. Khreishah had to investigate the possibility, therefore, that Glock might...have been seen as an enemy of the Palestinian people as a result of his refusal to give a qualified Palestinian a job. But the dispute had been settled a month before the killing. Hamdan Taha is now director of the antiquities department of the Palestinian Authority, a branch of the PA's ministry of tourism...the American FBI considers Taha the principal suspect in the crime because he was seen to have benefited from Glock's killing. Certainly, if you look at the matter from the wrong end of a telescope, you might dimly discern Taha prospering after Glock's death, but Taha holds a doctorate in archaeology from the University of Heidelberg, has a wife and family, and knows more about Iron Age burials than how to organise a professional assassination. He is not a credible suspect.

“We [Israel] possess several hundred atomic warheads and rockets and can launch them at targets in all directions, perhaps even at Rome. Most European capitals are 22 targets for our air force. Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: “Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother.” I consider it all hopeless at this point. . . Our armed forces, however, are not the thirtieth strongest in the world, but rather the second or third. We have the capability to take the world down with us. And I can assure you that that will happen before Israel goes under.” - Martin van Creveld, Zionist Jew

About Me

American born, my wife and I moved to Israel in 1970. We have lived at Shiloh together with our family since 1981. I was in the Betar youth movement in the US and UK. I have worked as a political aide to Members of Knesset and a Minister during 1981-1994, lectured at the Academy for National Studies 1977-1994, was director of Israel's Media Watch 1995-2000 and currently, I work at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem. I was a guest media columnist on media affairs for The Jerusalem Post, op-ed contributor to various journals and for six years had a weekly media show on Arutz 7 radio. I serve as an unofficial spokesperson for the Jewish Communities in Judea & Samaria.